Monday, September 1, 2014

Sensation and Angelic Presence, part III

So I would like to come back to this question of organic sensation by explaining that (a) it is a cosmological manifestation of the angelic orders; that (b) it actually represents the manifestation of an angelic order of intelligence; and (c) that it constitutes the penetration of our Being by angelic introspection during life, as opposed to the introspection which Swedenborg describes after death takes place.

The energy of the organic sense of Being is essential to what de Salzmann called seeing, since seeing as she describes it does not belong to the natural or mortal level, but the angelic orders.

Our mistake in this matter is that we always take everything as coming from ourselves; yet one must, in other words, acquire a definite amount of angelic energy—energy, as she called it, from a higher level—in order to see. Everyone discusses seeing as though it belonged to us, on this level; yet what sees belongs to a different order, one which can never actually be described except within a human Being's innermost, most secret and most silent soul. Close to where it touches God.Seeing is that precisely, exact, and scientific process whereby one sees all of one's being exactly as it is and categorically cannot escape one's manifestations any more; and it is well known that Madame insisted that both the inflow of a higher energy and the manifestation of a voluntary, or self-conscious, self-aware, sensation was necessary. She insisted this simply because the angelic order must be contacted and actively expressed in order for seeing to begin. Anything else is a manufactured sham.

This process of seeing, which takes place in the angelic inspection of the soul after death (according to the Egyptians, it had to be lighter than a feather to properly qualify) only takes place in life through the active and tangible presence of that same angelic manifestation; which is rarely experienced except in brief moments. More properly, this presence ought to be in one at all times.

The organic sense of Being generally arrives only after long-term suffering and the arrival of what Jeanne de Salzmann called "the big energy." (See Heart without Measure.) That is, its arrival is accompanied by personalized angelic visitations, which same are, at least—unlike many more spurious psychic manifestations—rather difficult to misunderstand or misinterpret, bewildering and frightening though they may be.

Real "intentional" suffering generally begins in the moment when one's organic sense of Being puts one in the place where one sees that one is unable to go against one's own wrong manifestations even when one is aware of them.

Mind you, spiritual development so often presumes that we'll somehow become "free" of wrong manifestation if we develop inwardly; but in fact the opposite is true.

Freedom does not consist in freedom from our wrong manifestation; it consists in freedom from our lies and illusions about it. One suffers directly one's helplessness; that is freedom.

It takes a very long period of suffering this state—decades or more—before anything else emerges. And the suffering is intentional not because "I" intend it, but because there is an higher intention behind the suffering.
The intention is angelic or heavenly in nature; and this intention is the purging of selfishness, the dissolution of the ego. But that intention can never come from this level; it is categorically impossible. So when we hear the words "intentional suffering," if we think that the intention has much of anything to do with our own intention, we are simply adopting our usual egoistic usurpation of power and applying it to even this most sacred idea.

Meister Eckhart does what is perhaps one of the most thorough and exhaustive jobs of attempting to purge us of the idea that any intention other than God's is sufficient;

yet the belief persists, because we love ourselves so much more than we love God.

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Recommendations and current reading list

Lee's current reading list (all recommended)

The Iceberg- Marion Coutts. This extraordinary book deserves to be read by every individual engaged in an inner search. The questions it raises about life, death, and relationship are framed by the authors responsibilities to her very young child and her dying husband. This is a book about real work in life, not esoteric theory.

Far From The Tree: Andrew Solomon. Parents, Children and the Search for Identity. Highly recommended.

Inner Yoga, Sri Anirvan—This extraordinary book is essential reading for any serious student of Gurdjieff or Yoga practice. Written at a level of both practical and philosophical discourse well above other contemporary work, Anirvan investigates the deep roots of Yoga practice, theory, and philosophy in a deeply sensitive series of insights. Of particular interest is the extraordinary and challenging piece on Buddhi and Buddhiyoga, which examines the questions of practice, life, and death with an acuity rarely encountered in other work of this nature.

Divine Love and Wisdom, Emmanuel Swedenborg. Swedenborg gives us a detailed report on Reality as received from higher sources, reflecting many Truths one would be wise to study carefully. Readers will be astounded by the extraordinary degree of correlation between Swedenborg and Ibn 'Arabi. Many fundamental principles introduced by Gurdjieff are also expounded on in fascinating detail by Swedenborg. All of Swedenborg's works are well worth reading.

The Divine Governance of the Human Kingdom, Ibn 'Arabi. Another real gem, this book ought to be read by every seeker on the spiritual path. If you can only find the time to read one book by Ibn 'Arabi, this ought to be the one. By turns lighthearted, serious, insightful, and ingenius, al 'Arabi introduces us to our inner government character by character, explains their relationships, and indicates how to bring them into a state of harmonious cooperation. Written with love, the book deftly manages to avoid being didactic, delivering instead a sensitive, poetic, and even romantic look at how to organize our inner Being.

The Bezels of Wisdom—Ibn al 'Arabi. A compendium of observations about the nature of "The Reality"—what al 'Arabi calls God— from a 13th century Sufi master. This towering work easily holds its own against—and is worthy of comparison to—13th century masterpieces from other major religious traditions such as Dogen's Shobogenzo and Meister Eckhart's sermons.